Monotonously he kept staring into the little flame in front of him. He had been staring at it for so long now that the candle was almost gone. The little fire flickered with every breath he took.

Silent tears had been filling his eyes for as long as he had been sitting there, but he still hadn’t released a single one of them.

Finally the last other person left and he was now all alone in the small church. He took out his wallet and found the old picture of the little girl in the red dress. She was smiling and waving happily at the camera, the sun making her dark hair shine. She had only been seven years old.

“Hey Minhee…”

Minki smiled as he carefully placed his lips on the photograph of his sister.

“I’m sorry it’s been so long since I last thought of you. You must think I’m an awful person… after what I did to you”. He was whispering against the thick little paper, making sure his lips never left the surface. “A lot of things have happened you know. I’ve got a boyfriend now. I know mum and dad probably won’t approve of him, but I really love him…”

For a moment he had to stop talking to swallow a sob, then he continued.

“I just don’t know what to do anymore noona… The same thing happened to him. He was in so much pain and he couldn’t stop crying. And as if I had been screaming he covered his ears, but there was no sound at all. I’ll be honest with you noona, I don’t know if he will even make it. The doctors are pessimistic about his chances, they think he’s going to die like you did… But I just can’t live without him…”

He gave up holding back the tears and started to cry as quietly as he could, still clinging to the picture.

“Why is it that everyone I really love is being taken from me like this? It’s not fair…”

He hold onto Jonghyun’s hand as tight as he dared.

“Hyung?... Can you hear me?”

It looked as if the brunette had to move a head of stone, not bone and flesh when he turned his head slightly towards Minki. His skin was damp from a thin layer of sweat and he couldn’t keep his eyes open for more than a few seconds.

“Minki… Hey…”

The words were being breathed out between his dry lips, almost impossible to hear and it seemed to cost him enormous amounts of strength, yet he curled his lips a bit as if he was trying to smile.

“Yes, I’m here. I’m so sorry Jonghyunah… I never meant for this to happen, it’s all my fault”.

“No…” Jonghyun frowned briefly to express that he didn’t agree.

“It is though!  I don’t know what happened, but you’re not the only one. I… I think I killed my sister the same way…”
“What?”

“I have no idea to how I did it, but it must have been me…” With soaked eyes he leaned down to rest his head on Jonghyun’s shoulder. “I was five, she was seven and we were playing outside our grandma’s house when I fell. I got cuts and scratches all over my hands and knees, even my face. At that time I was wearing a new jacket and I was terrified my mum would get angry if I got blood stains on it so I started to cry, of course. And my sister… My sister thought it was because it hurt so she kissed me on the cheek, then on my hands to make the pain go away…”

Devastated he buried his face in Jonghyun’s shirt.

“She died within half an hour, screaming and crying… How could it not be my fault?!”

Minki was shaking in grief; he had placed himself next to Jonghyun on the hospital bed, even though it was so narrow he was almost rolling off.

“Minki… please, it was my own fault…” He managed to lift his hand and place it on the younger one’s head, his blonde locks softly even though he soon got tired in his hand from just this light motion.

“But why? Hyung, the doctors had no idea of what happened to Minhee; all they could say was that she had been poisoned somehow, but they had never seen anything like it! And now they still haven’t got a clue whatsoever of how this happened to you…”

“I have”.

Minki lifted his head to look at Jonghyun.

“What are you saying?...”
“I know how this happened… It was because… ungh…” He had to stop talking for a while as a twinge made his whole body hurt, as if his bones had become boiling tar.

“Not so fast, you have to rest. If I stress you out they won’t let me visit you again”.

The machine next to the bed which was reading Jonghyun’s heart rhythm with a small beep for every beat had sped up its noises.

“Try to relax…”
“It was because I bit you”. He was now panting, closing his eyes in struggle to keep away the pain until he had finished talking. “I swallowed a few drops of your blood… argh… It’s Helix blood… It’s poisonous to others… Oh God, make it stop… Make it stop!”

Once again his body started to tremble and he screamed, his voice so agonisingly painful it made Minki get off of the bed and hit the bottom next to them to call a nurse, his heart aching from helplessness.

“Make it stop! PLEASE!”

He had never seen anyone cry like this before. The sight of Jonghyun twitching so that he almost fell from the bed, his hands clenched on the sheets as he arched his back as if to get away from the mattress like it was made from acid, made his mind turn blank in utter panic.

“I can’t take it, please… please make it go away!”

“I can’t… Oh God, hyung I can’t…” It was heart-breaking to watch, knowing he couldn’t do a thing. “I’ve called a nurse, they’ll be here right away…”

“IT HURTS!”

Crying almost as much as Jonghyun, he ran to the door and called down the hallway.

“Someone, help him! Please, he’s suffering!”

“Aron…”
“What?” Distracted he turned his head again.

“Aron… Aron knows about this… Argh, please… stop it!”

Finally three doctors rushed into Jonghyun’s room, pushing Minki aside on their way. A nurse made him leave the room, slamming the door behind him.

As soon as the door was closed, he couldn’t hear the screams anymore.

It took him almost an hour before he gave up on seeing Jonghyun again. The doctors refused to let anyone anywhere near the boy. Even his parents had been turned down and they were now sitting in a corner of the hospital’s cafeteria, looking perfectly miserable.

They had both ordered coffee, but none of them had as much as sipped from their paper cups. With a forced smile Jonghyun’s mother had asked if Minki wanted anything to drink, but he had turned down the offer. He knew they hated him for stealing their handsome son, they had just not realised it yet because of the worry that seemed to have consumed both of them.

But of course they had made the link when they had come home just in time to see Jonghyun being carried out of their house on a stretcher, Minki choking up next to him, still halfway and with blood on his lips. They just hadn’t had the time to really loathe him yet.

A very low voice made him look up, after having stared pointlessly at the edge of the table for almost ten minutes, as if he expected it to tell him everything was going to be all right.

“Minhyunah…”

The blonde rose from his chair to give Minhyun a tight hug.

“I’m sorry it took so long… How is he?” He pulled away a bit, and Minki bit his lip, glancing at Jonghyun’s parents.

“Let’s go somewhere else”.

“Of course”.

They went outside and stood in front of the hospital. It was dark and it was raining, but at the moment they didn’t care. At least no one was likely to disturb them at this hour.

“So, tell me. How is he?”

Minhyun looked at Minki with the deepest shade of pity on his face.

“He’s going to die…” Having absolutely no more tears left, he had to do with whimpering as he continued. “The doctors have no idea of how to save him. They told me they couldn’t get the poison out of him, they could only slow it down… He’ll be dead within two weeks, there’s nothing they can do”.